The present invention relates to materials useful for a variety of applications including electrolytic capacitors. More particularly, the present invention relates to oxygen reduced valve metal oxides and methods of preparing the same.
Niobium based electrolytic capacitor materials are gaining significant interest for their potential in competing with tantalum and aluminum electrolytic capacitors in the low voltage, high capacitance segment due to their cost and performance advantages. However, anodization and Nb2O5/Nb interfacial characteristics of these materials pose significant challenges in manufacturing high reliability capacitors.
The device miniaturization trend in electronic and communication applications also raises significant challenges to the components industry. Solid electrolytic capacitors with high volumetric efficiency, high reliability, and a wide application temperature range are a part of the solution to this challenge. In order to meet the increasing demands of high performance capacitor substrate materials at a reasonable cost, development of alternative material have become increasingly appealing. Researchers recently have investigated niobium (Nb) as a potential candidate. To date, however, there has not been a large commercial interest for a number of reasons. Recent developments have demonstrated that a niobium based oxide, NbO, is capable of being a capacitor anode that has a high quality dielectric layer via electrochemical process and offers good physical and electrical properties. In addition, due to its partially oxidized nature, NbO based devices are much less prone to thermal run away, thereby significantly reducing the risk of burning on a circuit broad in the event of device electrical failure.
As with any technology, there is always room for discovering additional embodiments and providing variations in methods to make materials which have a variety of uses, including uses in the electrolytic capacitor area.